"Every time I teach I learn something new," Professor Zych says. "I always tell my students if you take a class and don't learn something new you're just throwing your money away."

Having started his teaching career here in 1971, Professor Zych is among the most senior Vaughn College instructors. Part of the Aviation Training Institute faculty, he teaches jet engine maintenance to classes that average about 20 students.

Professor Zych is a 1971 graduate of Vaughn ancestor the Academy of Aeronautics who was hired back at his alma mater only months after graduating. He proudly calls the College his "home away from home."

"It was a much smaller place when I first started here, but it's very friendly and everyone gets along," Professor Zych says.

Professor Zych enrolled at Vaughn after returning from deployments as an Air Force mechanic in Okinawa, Japan and wartime Vietnam.

"The Air Force was the first time I was away from home," Professor Zych recalls. "It made me aware that my mother wasn't going to be there with me all the time."

Fast-forward four decades and Professor Zych is one of the most recognized and respected faces on campus.

"What really motivates me is when students graduate and go to work for an airline and they realize that what I taught them made sense," Professor Zych says. "I do love it when they come back and say hello and they realize that what they were being taught was not a joke, that it's important."